Page:Final Report of the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol.pdf/375

 lack of a better way of saying it, no good or not—not valid." Findlay confirmed that Morgan told him after the Supreme Court ruling on December 11th that "there's not really anything left for us to do on this project" and that "it doesn't seem like a good idea for us to be involved in it."

Campaign lawyers were not the only ones who doubted the legality of the fake elector plan. The Office of White House Counsel appears to have expressed concerns about it as well. In his testimony to the Select Committee, White House Counsel Pat Cipollone acknowledged his view that by mid-December, the electoral process was "done." Cipollone told the Select Committee that the White House Counsel's office "probably" had discussions about the electors plan and that his Deputy, Pat Philbin, would have been involved in evaluating the electors issue. In an informal Committee interview, Philbin described the fake elector scheme as one of the "bad theories" that were like "Whac-A-Mole" in the White House during this period. Mr. Cipollone agreed with this characterization.

In her testimony, Cassidy Hutchinson testified that she heard at least one member of the White House Counsel's Office say that the plan was not legal: Committee Staff:. . . to be clear, did you hear the White House Counsel's Office say that this plan to have alternate electors meet and cast votes for Donald Trump in States that he had lost was not legally sound?

Hutchinson: Yes, sir. She also recalled a meeting that took place in or before mid-December during which this view was relayed to Giuliani and members of his team by lawyers in the White House Counsel's Office.

By December 11th, Findlay emailed his main points of contact in six battleground States to say "[t]hank you for your work on the presidential elector project" and, in order to pass off his responsibilities, let them know that "Rudy's team has designated Kenneth Chesebro as the point person for the legal documents" going forward.

While the campaign's core legal team stepped back from the fake elector effort on December 11th, it nonetheless went forward because "Rudy was in charge of [it]" and "[t]his is what he wanted to do," according to Findlay. When Findlay was asked if this decision to let the effort proceed under Giuliani's direction "was coming from your client, the President," Findlay responded: "Yes, I believe so. I mean, he had made it clear that Rudy was in charge of this and that Rudy was executing what he wanted." Findlay also recalled being told that Chesebro's elector memos had become "the justification for why Rudy and Ken were going to keep going forward